In my previous blog, I complained about colleagues developing constitutive models without having any notion about the specific nature of deformation and damage and their micromechanical mechanisms. Unfortunately, this happens more often than one might (or would like to) believe, as a recent example testifies.

 P. Mäkelä and S. Östlund: Cohesive crack modelling of thin sheet material exhibiting anisotropy, plasticity and large-scale damage evolution. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 79, 2012 pp. 50-60.

Looking at the title and the Abstract:

These positions have been filled.

The abstract submission deadline for the EMI/PMC 2012 Conference has been extended to January 31, 2012. For details visit 
http://www.nd.edu/~emipmc12/ .

2 PhD Fellowships Fully Funded available £33138 per annum at Cardiff iMAM. Closing date:

13 February 2012

1 Post-Doc £50,467 per annum + monthly mobility allowance. Closing date:

13 February 2012

There is an open position in the Advanced Tire Technology department in Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (www.bridgestone-firestone.com). Please see the attached flyer for details and send resume, if interested, to bfpd [at] bfusa.com (bfpd[at]bfusa[dot]com)

Yang Wei wants to reform attitudes towards research ethics at Zhejiang University and across the country.

Yang Wei has an easy smile and a carefree, even distracted, air — but he takes such a solemn approach to life that his wife sometimes tells him to relax. “I take everything seriously,” he says.

Dear colleagues:

We are looking for a Ph.D. candiate to join the group of Applied Mechanics and Bioengineering  at the University of Zaragoza. The four-year PhD fellowships cover the full tuition, a monthly stipend, and health insurance. 

Attached are some (hand-written) observations on wanting to do continuum mechanics when mass is not conserved for fixed sets of particles of the body (so, situations transcending the rocket-losing-mass type). I feel (un)comfortable with these observations, depending upon the day I think about such things.